1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a fabric picking and separating device and method of operation for picking and transporting one or more upper ones of fabric sheets from a stack thereof without disturbing the position of said fabric sheets in the stack and to deposit same at a remote location.
2. Description of Prior Art
In the needletrade industry, it is a common operation to manually separate fabric pieces from stacks and to superimpose them in substantially precise positions wherein to sew or fuse them together. For example, in the construction of collars for shirts, there are two or three fabric pieces superimposed and sewn together. Such overlapping of fabric pieces is a time-consuming job, and often the material pieces are not properly aligned before sewing, resulting in poor quality products, material loss and man/hour loss.
There exists the need to provide an automatic separating and transporting machine wherein single fabric pieces are manipulated to be superimposed in precise alignment prior to being picked and transporting to an operating station, etc. Such machine(s) should also be operated with minimum manpower, be precise, and operate at high speed and capable of being synchronized with other machines, and be capable of picking up one or more top fabric pieces from an aligned stack of such pieces without disturbing the pieces in the stack.